Boy Scouts Releases New Album ‘Wayfinder’
Called “gorgeously bittersweet” and “immediately compelling” by Stereogum, Boy Scouts releases the new album ‘Wayfinder.' The project of Oakland-based LGBTQ artist Taylor Vick, ‘Wayfinder’ has a warm, expansive style that recalls the raw punctures of Lucinda Williams and Alex G and shows Vick to be a fearless seeker shedding light on the unanswerable.
Recently Vick spoke with FLOOD Magazine who debuted the latest track “A Lot To Ask” – a song that “juxtaposes introverted neurosis with a warm, golden instrumental that feels like it emerged straight from the navy blue Pacific surf,” Flood said - and chatted with Taylor about its themes.
In the thick of lockdowns, both Vick and longtime collaborator Stephen Steinbrink independently found themselves wanting to work on a new Boy Scouts album. They decided to pursue it despite logistical challenges, traveling up to Anacortes, Washington to record at The Unknown. Working slowly, they invited a roster of collaborators to join them over time, including Vick's brother Travis and Jay Som's Melina Duterte. The effects of working in a new space and with more people can be heard across the bold, assured ‘Wayfinder’, which takes place across a wider scale than Vick's prior work. Strands of slide guitar, organ, and strings ring under her affable, expressive voice, bolstering layers and layers of harmony.
"Why are we alive? Is there a point to any of this? Have I done this before? I was thinking about these questions like that, just playing with these ideas and being curious, " Vick says of the album’s themes. "I lost that curiosity for many years, and it came back to me in the last year. I started to wonder about these types of things again. It feels better to have curiosity for life."
These queries can sprout from easy, ponderous conversation just like everyday settings can harbor sudden turns of healing, even growth. On ‘Wayfinder’, Vick digs out that potential in even the most ordinary scenes. "Praying to the sidewalk like it holds my fate / Scream into the gutter so it knows my name," she sings on the album's closing track "Model Homes." She hurls her questions at the ground, and they ricochet squarely at the sky, which, in its way, answers.
Boy Scouts has announced a San Francisco album release show at Thee Parkside on November 20th and a Los Angeles album release show at Zebulon on November 23. They will also be performing at Outside Lands Music Festival and at an Outside Lands After Party on October 28. All dates are below.
TOUR DATES
10/28 – San Francisco, CA – Balboa Theatre (Outside Lands Night Show)
10/29 – 10/31 – San Francisco, CA – Outside Lands Music Festival
11/20 – San Francisco, CA – Thee Parkside (Tickets)
11/23 – Los Angeles, CA – Zebulon (Tickets)